Hearing officer: Evidence does not support murder case [LCpl. Justin Sharratt - Haditha Marine]

North County Times ^ | June 15, 2007 | Mark Walker

[dfwgator]

What a great movie Breaker Morant is.

[RedRover]

What a scary parallel. I pray there’s no Kitchener in Congress or Camp Pen.

[4woodenboats]

Celebrate without reservations, Mrs.;

Lt. Col. Paul Ware, who will recommend whether to send Sharratt to trial, challenged the prosecution, saying the government's theory of the case does not warrant the three counts of unpremeditated murder filed against Sharratt in December.

"The account you want me to believe does not support unpremeditated murder," Ware told the lead prosecutor, Maj. Daren Erickson. "Your theories don't match the reason you say we should go to trial."

IOW, The IO just called BS on the whole thing. It's done. Baked. Fini. History. Outta gas.

This is GOOD NEWS

[jazusamo]

I need your permission! :-)

[jude24]

Trust the process, trust the Corps.

Bingo. These guys aren't political hacks.

(What’s a no-bill?)

That's what happens when a grand jury refuses to indict.

[jazusamo]

IOW, The IO just called BS on the whole thing. It's done. Baked. Fini. History. Outta gas.

This is GOOD NEWS

AMEN! It's celebration time for the Sharratt's.

[RedRover]

And trust the Army, while we’re at it! And great old Army lawyers like Gary Myers!

So what happens in a no-bill? Does Gen. Mattis officially drop charges in some fashion or what? Any idea what we can expect?

[jude24]

So what happens in a no-bill? Does Gen. Mattis officially drop charges in some fashion or what? Any idea what we can expect?

I'm not up on my military legal procedure (right now, I have a stack of bar review books about 2 feet tall), but I imagine if Gen. Mattis doesn't find sufficient evidence for the charges to proceed, that's it. The case is finished. I can't imagine the prosecution getting a second bite at the apple.

[RedRover]

Whoops!

Sorry for the bum link above! Click at the link for Darryl's thread.

[RedRover]

Thank you, Gary Myers!
For 39 years, from My Lai, to Abu Ghraib, and now Haditha, Gary Myers has dedicated his life and his legal practice to the representation of men and women in every branch of the military in every practice area of military law.

Thank you, James Culp!
A graduate of both UCLA and the UC Berkeley School of Law, James Culp has successfully represented more than 1500 members of the military around the globe including the United States, Japan, Korea, Germany, Bosnia and most recently Iraq where he served as the Army’s Senior Defense Counsel at Camp Victory in Baghdad

[TBP]

This case is falling apart, but our government remains determined to punish our troops for doing tehir job. (See the Pendleton Eight.) Taht is no way to win a war adn a great way to lose it.

Are we trying to win?

[RedRover]

Thank you, Major Brian Cosgrove (USMCR, detailed defense council)!

[lilycicero]

To think, tonight might be a good night’s rest for the Sharratts. Congrats!

[RedRover]

Isn’t this great, lil?

And wouldn’t it also be good if the gov’t now drops one of charges against Frank?

[RedRover]

For the record, how the incident in this house occurred according to the media:

Tim McGirk in Time (March 19, 2006):

The Marines raided a third house, which belongs to a man named Ahmed Ayed. One of Ahmed's five sons, Yousif, who lived in a house next door, told Time that after hearing a prolonged burst of gunfire from his father's house, he rushed over. Iraqi soldiers keeping watch in the garden prevented him from going in. "They told me, 'There's nothing you can do. Don't come closer, or the Americans will kill you too.' The Americans didn't let anybody into the house until 6:30 the next morning." Ayed says that by then the bodies were gone; all the dead had been zipped into U.S. body bags and taken by Marines to a local hospital morgue. "But we could tell from the blood tracks across the floor what happened," Ayed claims.

"The Americans gathered my four brothers and took them inside my father's bedroom, to a closet. They killed them inside the closet."

The military has a different account of what transpired. According to officials familiar with the investigation, the Marines broke into the third house and found a group of 10 to 15 women and children. The troops say they left one Marine to guard that house and pushed on to the house next door, where they found four men, one of whom was wielding an AK-47. A second seemed to be reaching into a wardrobe for another weapon, the officials say. The Marines shot both men dead; the military's initial report does not specify how the other two men died. The Marines deny that any of the men were killed in the closet, which they say is too small to fit one adult male, much less four....In all, two AK-47s were discovered.

_________________________________________

William Langewiesche in Vanity Fair (November 2006):

Wuterich's men pursued the search to the north side of Route Chestnut, where they put the women and children under guard and killed four men of another family. There on the north side they found the only AK-47 that was discovered that day, apparently a household defensive weapon, of the type that is legal and common in Iraq. No one has claimed that the rifle had been fired....

A man cries, "This is an act denied by God. What did he do? To be executed in the closet? Those bastards!...."

_________________________________________

Josh White in the Washington Post (January 6, 2007):

A few hours later [after the first houses were cleared], Sharratt, Wuterich and Salinas approached a third and fourth house after noticing men they said were peering at them suspiciously. The investigative reports show that what happened there is unclear. Iraqi witnesses said the Marines angrily separated men and women into two lines before marching the men into the fourth house and shooting them. The three Marines told investigators they were searching for the men they had seen and separated the women into a safe area before Wuterich and Sharratt entered the house.

Sharratt told investigators that he saw a man raise an AK-47 rifle as if to shoot him. Sharratt said his gun jammed, but he grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the attacker. He told investigators he saw another man with a rifle and shot him and two others because he "felt threatened." Wuterich also shot at the men, he said.

[Defend Our Marine]

Theresa and I did not notice him at the start of the closing articles. In the back of the room sat a muscular man in combat fatigues. At the end of the hearing we were told by Frank Wuterich that Captain Lucas McConnell would like to meet us. We exited the courtroom and were met by this enormous officer outside of the building. It was Captain McConnell. The Capt introduced himself and told us he was just checking up on HIS MARINE. A man of incredible integrity and honor. As you know, Captain McConnell was Justin’s commanding officer, CO of Kilo Company.

Theresa and I had talked with McConnell on numerous occasions prior to the Article 32. McConnell gave Justin a copy of Teddy Roosevelt’s “A Strenuous Life” during his 1st tour. He presented it to Justin on Christmas Day, 2004.

What a classy Marine! What a honorable man! While under charges for this same Haditha incident, he took the time to meet and talk with us at length. I just want to scream......The media and politicians need to be crucified for what they are doing to Our Haditha Marines.

Bravo to Capt Lucas McConnell—he** of a man..He** of a Marine

Darryl Sharratt

[RedRover]

WE HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT BACK, DARRYL!!!!!

But tonight...

CELEBRATE!!!!

[RedRover]

We need some NEW pictures like this one...

[RedRover]

Ahem...

I am waiting for a bump for my Major Cosgrove post.

;)

[jude24]

Oh. BTTT.

(Sorry. Got a lot going on.)